


All I've Ever Known Is How To Hold My Own, Now I Want to Hold You

by JustARandomIdiot



Series: Tiny!Orion fics [2]
Category: Story Thieves Series - James Riley
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, G/T, Gen, Giant/Tiny, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Tiny!Orion, i just put bethany because shes /kinda/ there but really not, where it says bethany its not actually bethany
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:08:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22341562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustARandomIdiot/pseuds/JustARandomIdiot
Summary: Set in a universe similar to A Tiny Problem, except Orion wasn't able to return to his regular size.Orion sometimes has nightmares. Each time, though, it's the same person telling him that he's worthless. He's grown numb to her taunts, but she's determined to break him.Title from Hadestown's "All I've Ever Known."
Relationships: Bethany Sanderson & Orion | Kid Twilight, Orion | Kid Twilight & Catherine Sanderson, Orion | Kid Twilight & Christian Sanderson | Doc Twilight, Orion | Kid Twilight & Original Character
Series: Tiny!Orion fics [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1565032
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	All I've Ever Known Is How To Hold My Own, Now I Want to Hold You

**Author's Note:**

> Hurting Orion is fun. :)
> 
> Like it says in the summary, this is basically a spin off of A Tiny Problem, where Charm was unable to help Orion back to his regular size, so he just stays 4 inches tall. Mostly because I enjoy Tiny!Orion a lot.

_The first thing he heard in the darkness was the laugh._ Her _laugh._

_It was familiar, but not. It was like Bethany’s laugh, and not like Bethany’s laugh at the same time. It was darker, more sinister._

_He knew she had Bethany’s voice. She had Bethany’s body, and she had Bethany’s face. He also knew that she wasn’t Bethany. No, no matter how she looked, she would never be Bethany._

_Instead, he’d come to know her as Nightmare, because that was what she was. A nightmare._

_Nightmare didn’t come every night, and she didn’t come too often, but when she did, the experience was never pleasant. Nightmare enjoyed hurting Orion, physically and emotionally. She enjoyed his pain. She enjoyed his tears. She enjoyed his screams. She knew how to break him._

_He could never wake up until she had done her damage, but at least he could find some comfort in knowing that it was only a dream._

_That didn’t make it feel any less real, though._

_“Oriiiiiiiiiiooooooooooon~!” she taunted, her voice echoing all around him._

_He whipped around, seeing more darkness. He swallowed, feeling his heart pounding in his chest, but he tried not to show it. He wasn’t going to give Nightmare that satisfaction. Not tonight._

_She laughed again. He still couldn’t pinpoint her voice._

_“Poor helpless Orion…”_

_He turned again, looking up. Still darkness. He glared, hoping he was glaring at her._

_“Aw, trying to be brave?” She giggled again, and Orion could feel his breathing quicken. But he wasn’t going to run. No, Nightmare wanted him to be scared. And he didn’t want Nightmare to be satisfied._

_“I suppose there are other ways to get you to scream.”_

_Something wrapped around his body, and he felt himself rushing away from the ground, up to Nightmare’s eyeless face._

_That was one way to know she wasn’t Bethany. Bethany had eyes. Nightmare didn’t. Even if it was kind of stupid, Nightmare’s lack of eyes always reminded Orion that Bethany would never become Nightmare._

_“You seem so sure about that,” she taunted, an unsettling grin growing on her face. “But you’re still just as small and insignificant to her.”_

_If his arms weren’t pinned to his sides, he would’ve tried to break from her hold. Instead, Orion yelled some choice words at her, tempted to spit in her face._

_“Such language, Orion. You really kiss your mother with that mouth? Oh wait, you don’t have one!”_

_Orion continued to glare, Nightmare’s laughter piercing his ears. She’d taunted him constantly about the death of his parents, about how the Sandersons could never be his family._

_He stopped listening to her._

_It wasn’t long before she clearly became bored._

_“You’re no fun now,” she pouted, her thumbnail dangerously close to slicing Orion’s neck. He knew she could easily do so if she wanted to._

_But he wasn’t scared. “Good,” he spat at her. “Not like there’s much you can do now. Any lie you tell me, anything you do to hurt me, you’ve done them all! Face it, nothing you try is gonna do anything to me!”_

_Well, almost nothing. There were still some things she hadn’t tried yet._

_At that thought, Orion silently cursed to himself. This was a dream . Meaning anything he thought could easily be willed into existence._

_And Nightmare seemed to know it._

_“Why don’t we play a game?”_

_Orion didn’t trust that smile. “What game?” he dared to ask, biting the inside of his cheek._

_She set him down on the floor beneath them. “A game of Cat and Mouse.” She stood back to her full height, making Orion feel incredibly tiny as she towered above him. “I’ll give you some time to run. If I can’t catch you, you win. If I can…” She smiled wider than humanly possible. “You’re mine.”_

_He didn’t like the sound of that._

_“Better start running, little man~!”_

_He wasted no time. He pushed as hard as he could, sprinting away from Nightmare. With the surrounding darkness, however, he couldn’t tell how far he had gotten. And he didn’t want to look behind him, not until he was sure he was far enough._

_After how long (in a dream, it could’ve been minutes, or just seconds), he heard her sinister voice echoing around him. “5…”_

_He pushed harder, ignoring it._

_“4…”_

_No, he wouldn’t let Nightmare win! He couldn’t!_

_“3…”_

_Was her voice closer?_

_“2…”_

_As he ran, Orion couldn’t shake the feeling that he was going nowhere._

_“1…”_

_No!!! He was not going to lose!!!_

_“I win.”_

_Orion yelped, feeling himself being snagged up by the back of his shirt, rising into the air. He turned to glare at Nightmare’s stupid face as he dangled by the tips of her fingers. But she didn’t seem bothered. Instead, she continued to lift him. Higher, higher, and soon he was past her head._

_Orion’s eyes widened. “What are you doing?” he asked, hoping he didn’t sound nervous. His heart was racing, afraid that he already knew the answer._

_Nightmare licked her lips, looking up at him at the end of her outstretched arm. “I said it was a game of Cat and Mouse, didn’t I?”_

_Orion felt his stomach drop, his fear confirmed._

_“Wait, don’t do it! Please! No!” He scrambled to reach up to her fingers, hoping to hold on to something before he was dropped._

_Nightmare grinned. “That’s what I like to see.”_

_Orion didn’t care that he had given her the satisfaction that he didn’t want her to have. He just wanted to get away! He screamed and kicked, doing anything to escape._

_But there wasn’t anything he could do._

_Nightmare opened her mouth below him, and she let go._

* * *

“Orion! Orion!”

Orion’s eyes snapped open.

Panting hard and shivering, he looked around, wondering why he wasn’t in Nightmare’s mouth, or worse, her stomach. Instead, it was bright where he was. And he was alive.

“Are you okay, kid? You were screaming in your sleep.”

He looked up, Christian and Catherine looking down at him worriedly.

That was when he remembered that Nightmare was only in his dreams. She wasn’t real.

And he was now awake, sitting in Christian’s cupped hands, the lamp on the nightstand turned on. Outside the window, it was still dark, the moon not shining that night.

Catherine gently used her thumb to caress Orion’s hair. “Were you having a nightmare?” she asked softly, concern in her voice.

He knew that Catherine wasn’t trying to hurt him, but the word “nightmare” only reminded him of the demon he had given that name to. They didn’t know about her. He’d never cried out in his sleep before when she came. He’d never woken up like this when she came. He’d never told them anything about her.

The fear and intensity of his experience with her now struck him, along with everything she had done to torture him in his sleep. Those nights she hurt him, telling him things that made him feel useless, finding some way to damage his body, laughing as he suffered. 

He couldn’t stop himself from crying in front of his parental figures.

The moment the first sob left his mouth, Christian and Catherine immediately did their best to calm him down, gently stroking his back and telling him soothing words. Christian held the tiny boy against his chest, his thumb rubbing his back as Catherine’s fingers stroked his hair.

“You want to talk about it?”

Orion could feel the vibration in Christian’s chest as he spoke, sniffing as the tears continued to pour down his face, listening to his heartbeat.

What would they say if he told them about Nightmare? About everything she did to cause him pain? How she took the form of their daughter, Bethany?

He knew Bethany would never hurt him on purpose. Bethany wasn’t Nightmare. Bethany would never be Nightmare.

Still, he didn’t want Christian or Catherine to know that his fears took the form of their daughter. He buried his face into Christian’s shirt, shaking his head. He didn’t want to hurt them with that fact.

At least they were understanding. They didn’t press further, choosing to respect his choice.

“Want to sleep here instead?”

Orion hesitated, a little embarrassed. He was already a teenager, and here he was, crying like a toddler. But the thought of sleeping on his own for the rest of the night scared him, like Nightmare could easily return to torture him more, even if he knew she wasn’t real.

Slowly, he nodded, biting his lip.

A moment later, he felt his entire world shift as Christian lay back down in his bed. He kept one hand over Orion, his other moved to hug his wife. Catherine placed her hand on top of Christian’s, both of their hands now over the tiny boy like blankets.

Christian smiled down at him gently, ruffling Orion’s hair with his thumb. “Sleep well, kid,” he said.

Orion nodded, burying his face back into Christian’s shirt.

The lamp was turned off, and he was surrounded by darkness again.

But Nightmare’s laughter was nowhere to be heard. Instead, the thumping of Christian’s heart beat below him, and the soft breathing of Christian and Catherine blew above him. Their hands weighed down on him, not crushing him at least. Instead, they were comforting. On Christian’s chest, he felt himself slowly rising and falling, his body heat warming Orion’s tiny body.

Instead of closing his eyes, Orion spent a few minutes soaking all this in.

He felt warm, and he felt safe.

His tears dried up and his eyelids heavy, Orion drifted back to sleep.

If he dreamt, he didn’t remember; Nightmare didn’t return, at least. For the rest of the night, he was safe.


End file.
